Well, wow!! what a week it has been!!
We thought that we were going to get a little bit of a break after the baptism of the Aldama family, but nope. We were teaching one of our golden investigators and we told him that his baptism date had been moved back a week because he didn´t come to church. When we told him that he was probably the most bummed I have ever seen a person here in Paraguay. It was crazy because he was bummed that we had only moved his date back a week. His date didn´t drop just moved back and he was on the verge of tears. We told him if he was willing to do all that we told him we could move his date back to this Friday which means that we had a ton of stuff to teach him and only 3 days to do it all. He said he would. Well, that was when it started. We started teaching him about all kinds of stuff that we still needed to go over. When we came back the next day to teach him again; he would have to review what we gave him the night before and even have more awesome comments to give us. We taught him about the commandments and about the law of chastity and word of wisdom and he said that he would always follow those laws. We got to tithing and we were a little scared that he wouldn´t like it as much because it means giving up some of your money to some church that you hardly know. We explained what tithing was; and that if we paid tithing, the Lord would bless us enormously. We asked him if he would follow the law of the tithe and why it was important. He said he would follow it for his whole life, and he would do it because he NEEDED the blessings from God. Wow........ So we got his baptism all set up. We made a cake. I was definitely careful not to make it on top of the stove. Hahaha!!! The cake was ready and we had to empty the font by hand with buckets from the week before because the pump is broken. So we did that and then filled it back up, right before the baptism was supposed to start. Vanancio passed his interview with flying colors. We finally got to the baptism and it was already half an hour after it was supposed to start and no one was there! Only a few of the youth and 1 family had come. We were sooo worried because one of the reasons that Venancio said he wanted to be baptized was because he wanted to be a part of the ward and for everyone to know him. No one from the ward practically came. So we started anyway. We got to the baptism and he came up out of the water and was soooo happpy... it was a crazy testimony to me that even though the members don´t come to a baptism, that doesn´t mean we aren´t performing a sacred ordinance that will bring the spirit. Wow.......... So anyway we are super dead and tired from just running around 3 days stressed all the time about Venancio and everything. Buts it’s super worth it and I can´t wait to see what’s up next with us.
Really we don´t have anybody up in line for baptism so I guess we have to so dome hard core searching this next week. That’s always fun.............
This last Sunday we went and ate with some members and it was crazy because they just try to give us as much food as we can possibly eat. One of the Hermanas that I’m always just joking around with, put a HUGE pan of sopa (it’s like cornbread) on the table after everyone was finished eating. She said that it looked like that I didn´t like the sopa while I was eating. (Which was a lie because I ate a ton of it and she knew it.) She said that she was sad because I didn´t like it. I didn´t know if she was joking around or if she was telling the truth and so to show her that I liked her sopa… I ate half of this huge pan of sopa all by myself. It was torture. I would just cut another piece without even really thinking about it and put it in my mouth chew and do it all over again. I had my goal at half the pan and I knew I could do it but I was miserable. But in the end the Hermana was happy, so I guess my misery was worth it. After that we watched the movie about the building of the Salt Lake Temple. It’s crazy to think that these people will probably never see it in real life and its only 5 hours away from my house. Wow...... ....
Quick shout out to all my buds who are serving the mission and reading this letter Jake, Jaden everyone. You’re in my prayers and thoughts. Shout out to Elder Northcott in PERU...... Keep going man we are in the service, nothing better than that!!!!
We had an experience with one of the ladies that we found this week while clapping at houses. She was in her house. We were teaching her son and she came out later. We had shared Mosiah 2:41 about keeping the commandments and being happy forever. We had a bunch of the youth there and they all bore their testimonies about how happy living the commandments had made them and their families. This woman then interrupted us and said pretty much ¨Really how can you be happy? If I came and told you how life really was you wouldn´t be happy. You guys are all just painted fake and are just so young and so you don´t know about life.¨ We then bore testimony about Jesus Christ and how He is always there to help us, no matter what the situation. She said that she prayed everyday and Christ didn´t get rid of her cancer, didn´t stop all the problems in her family, didn’t give her son his surgery, didn´t give them food, etc. She just kept going on and on about how miserable her life was and how miserable our life should be.
After we finally got out of the appointment, my comp. and I started talking about what she had said. Yes, life is hard. Anyone who says that life is easy, is kind of not thinking strait. But, there is NO problem or situation in life that can´t be fixed through Jesus Christ. If we have Christ in our lives, we are happy, because we have the knowledge and feeling that through Him, life is easy. How blessed are we to have the knowledge that we do about Christ. I hope that we never take for granted the blessings that we have of the Atonement and the peace that it brings to our lives.
I love you all and hope that you had the best holiday season that you have ever had. You are all in my prayers and thoughts. Jesus lives, Never forget it!!!
Rohyhu mi familia
Elder Beatty
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